Westside / guide (2)

Brentwood is one of L.A.'s most affluent neighborhoods, located on the Westside between Westwood and Santa Monica. Brentwood began as a Mexican land grant ranch sold off by the Sepulveda family. Its modern development started in the 1880s and today it boasts one of the lowest population densities in the city, with lush green pastures and coral trees along its main thoroughfare, San Vicente Boulevard. Read on for a guide to the area's essential stops, and get up close and personal with one of the Westside's most beautiful neighborhoods.

From its inception and then incorporation by Harry Culver in the early 1900s to the renovation and revitalization of its downtown that began in the 90s, Culver City is a city rich with motion picture, television and aviation history. Metro Goldwyn Mayer built their studios there in the 1920s; the facility later became Sony Pictures Studios. Howard Hughes opened his Hughes Aircraft plant in 1941 - at one time it was the largest employer in Los Angeles. Sony Pictures Entertainment is Culver City’s largest employer to date.

Iconic films such as "The Wizard of Oz," "Gone with the Wind," a portion of "Grease" and the Tarzan series were filmed in Culver City. By the early 2000s, parts of the Hughes empire had been purchased by or merged with General Motors, Boeing, NewsCorp and Raytheon, but Culver City’s imprint on aviation is evident throughout Martin Scorsese’s biopic, "The Aviator."

Read on to learn about the lesser-known destinations worth seeking out in “The Heart of Screenland.”